Typically, imaging devices, such as printers, facsimile machines, scanners, etc., utilize colormaps to transform images or data from one colorspace into another. For example, an image received from a computing device may be translated from an RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colorspace to a CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) colorspace prior to its output. During a translation, a colormap may be designed to account for a number of factors including print head transfer functions, ink properties, and paper types. Even when taking these factors into account, however, images may not be optimized for viewing because colormaps may fail to account for a viewer's perception.
Human perception of images may be dependent upon environmental lighting conditions such as ambient lighting. For example, images may appear brighter and with different hue and saturation as ambient lighting increases in luminance and as chromaticity varies. Consequently, the appearance of a color may be relative to its environment. Current imaging devices often contain a set of predefined colormaps that are designed to account for numerous factors. These colormaps, however, typically fail to account for lighting conditions and other environmental variables.